I'm not sure exactly what I thought the vine branch above looked like, but it was interesting. A seahorse?
Is this some kind of dandelion flower? Too bad I didn't get a shot of one that was open.
Another interesting vine branch — it looks almost like a narwhal. Or maybe some mythical creature.
White flower buds on hairy stems. Lawn daisies again?
Here's a more standard-looking vine trunk. Every year, a certain percentage of the grapevines die. Workers pull out the dead trunks and stack them up, mostly along the dirt road that runs through the vineyard. One year, I asked the vineyard owner if I could have some to burn in the fireplace or barbecue. He said I could take as many as I wanted, so I drove the little Peugeot out the road and filled up the trunk with them.
A lot of people around here heat their homes with those pieds de vigne. With EU restrictions on wine production, lots of vineyards around here have been pulled out. When we arrived 15 years ago, every single inch was vineyard; now it's about 50-50 vines or other crops. Maybe even 40-60 vines to crops.
ReplyDeleteThe stems that are trimmed in winter, les sarments, are very good for barbecues.
We used to have a big concrete barbecue in which we could burn grape trunks. And yes, the sarments de vigne are very for barbecuing. Our vineyards seem to be faring better than yours.
DeleteThe plant on the fourth photo looks like pourpier, purslane in English.
ReplyDeletePurslane grows wild in our vegetable garden, and it doesn't really look like that. It's more of a plante grasse.
DeletePourpier
DeleteThe purslane - pourpier has a nice entry in wikipedia with a photo of it in a Greek salad with feta, olive oil and beautiful red tomatoes. Ken your photos have me dreaming of a camera when the shops reopen. The trunk photos remind me of the cool natural art that was so popular along the California coast in the 70s and 80s.
DeleteThose gnarly bits of old vine would make great garden ornaments. Especially the seahorse one.
ReplyDeleteWow, that first photo, especially, is super shart and crisp -- and, yes, it does look like a seahorse!
ReplyDeleteThe Royal Albert Hall performance of Phantom of the Opera, with Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess, becomes free to stream today starting 2 pm eastern time, 11 am California time. Courtesy of Andrew Lloyd Weber. Here is the link if anyone wants to watch:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nINQjT7Zr9w
Available in the US for 48 hours, UK for 24 hours, seems to be available in some form globally.
DeleteThanks, D.
DeleteThat is definitely a seahorse, magical, mystical creature. And wondering how she wound up in a vineyard so far inland. :-)
ReplyDeleteRelative to the discussion earlier about books on France, here's a lovely bit of froth: "The Cleaner of Chartes", by Salley Vickers.
The seahorse has an interesting tusk...I think you should use it as sculpture somewhere in your garden!
ReplyDeleteProblem is, it's still attached to the vine trunk. I can't just go out there and cut it off!
DeleteAh! In that case..........I'm sure that's not allowed during the coronavirus pandemic which a friend is calling the damn panic.
DeleteI’m having trouble commenting on Saturday’s post so I’m trying this one.
ReplyDelete